I agree with the majority; it's a natural progression in style and difficulty that way. if you couldn't get through the hobbit, you won't make it through lotr; if you couldn't get through lotr, you won't make it through the silmarillion; and if you couldn't get through the silmarillion, you won't get through the rest.
Seems like each subsequent work is written and edited assuming you know the events of the previous ones. its like the star wars movies, the 3 prequels assume you've seen the original 3, and if you didn't know what happens in the later movies you'd miss out on a lot of references.